Life is Hard for Everyone

"Life is hard for everyone." This is one of the revelations I've had only since becoming a grown-up. It is on a list along with, "Mushrooms are delicious," and "Skinny people don't eat brownie sundaes several times a day."

I remember the time that last one sunk in. I was a big fan of the TV show "Friends." But one of my issues is a penchant for comparing myself to slim Hollywood stars and coming up short. Not until I disciplined myself a few years back and lost 25 pounds did it occur to me that Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox-Arquette, and Lisa Kudrow also had to WORK at being thin. They didn't get to eat anything they wanted anytime they wanted and miraculously remain slim and toned. Granted, they probably have a paid staff and hordes of time to help them focus on the size of their thighs, but still... they had/have to actually put forth an effort of some sort.

My career goal in college was to be a reporter and eventually work my way to anchorwoman. Naturally, I admired the talents and positions of women like Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Jane Pauley, Barbara Walters, and Paula Zahn (NOT Katie Couric, mind you). One day I heard an interview with one of them and she was asked about the crazy hours she was required to keep. Remarking on her 3:30 a.m. wake-up, she admitted that every single day when the alarm clock would sound, her mind would immediately start devising excuses for not getting out of bed. I was shocked! I suppose I assumed that with her high-power career, enormous success, and good looks, life was just easy for her. It matured me to realize that successful people become successful not because everything comes easy to them, but because they are willing to work. Even if they're given a break to attain that success, they have to work to keep it.

I follow a group of "mother runners" on facebook and I know from reading hundreds of posts that even though a woman might love to run, she usually doesn't love to wake up to run. This is oddly comforting. It's not like it's only hard for me. My inner whiner who says, "This is sooooo unfair! I wanna stay in bed! Everyone else has it so easy - they wake up to brilliant moods and good breath and matched running socks. But not me! It's HORRIBLE for me. I feel horrible, I look horrible, and it's too cold outside," has to be ignored. Perhaps she even has to be smothered with my pillow. I wonder if that's what Diane Sawyer did with her inner whiner.

Christmas break is coming to a close. Tomorrow I have to rise early once again and shower and dress and start a load of laundry and count my Weight Watchers points and assemble my children in their homeschool classroom, and, oh... get back to running. It ain't gonna be easy. But at least I'm not alone.